Modding only for the rich in the future?

[KaiserDeathIV]

Before i go to my main reason for this thread, let me say something other first.

 

In my opinion, modders DONT deserve any money. Dont get me wrong, they are all doing a FANTASTIC job, but its a hobby. Modding is NOT a job. Its a hobby. And getting paid for a hobby is just BS. I have hobbies too. And these hobbies require work too. Should i get paid for them now?

 

So now to my main complaiment about the new feature.

 

I have roughly 150 mods for Skyrim, 50 for Fallout 3 and 80 for Fallout New Vegas. Thats 280 mods. Now imagine JUST 25% of them costing JUST 1€. That would be 70€ for MODS. I dont have these 70€. And this only if the mods would cost 1€. But many would cost 3€ maybe even 5€. And then were really fats at 100€ or even more. I cant afford that. I am not rich. I have bills too. I can buy a game maybe every 2 months. I already have a job, but i dont get that much money from it.

 

With this new system people like me who dont have that much free money cant mod their games anymore. With this new system modding will only be for the rich.

 

This is my opinion.

 

(sry for my english skills)

 

EDIT: I have a good example for my first complaiment. Should we now pay for Fan Fictions and Fan Art because it required hard work to do these?

Edited April 25, 2015 by KaiserDeathIV

[MagdalenaDwojniak]

Fanart is fanart, legal and praiseworthy as long as you do not try to benefit financially from it. This argument is a bit off-topic.

 

I believe many people are fans. They just want to have fun and share it with their peers. That's how fandoms work. I can only hope there will still be such awesome, talented and generous persons like the authors of T2X or The Dark Mod (full-fledged games, much above a typical game I can buy on Amazon), who take their time and only expect you to carry the word of the fandom forward.

 

However, I also think that donations of various sorts, not just money, but also help with translating a mod etc. are deserved by many modders. Pay What You Want is a good system to do that. But allowing people to make mods for sale, which you cannot try out beforehand, seems like a bad move for everyone. Imagine somebody revamps a game in a way which alters it totally and starts selling it. It sells so well that the original studio goes bankrupt. They no longer offer their editors to people. Everybody loses out.

 

I can speak from my own experiences. I translate Thief fanmissions. Together with a few friends, we created a team to translate T2X into Polish. We thought just a couiple of people would ever care to launch it with our translation, but we deemed it worthwhile anyway - for those few guys. It took thousands of hours, a lot of effort, yes, money too (many, often very specialised, dictionaries). We put it up and people enjoyed the work so much that it didn't end on T2X PL. We have eighteen fully-translated FMs hosted, with others on the way. We no longer have to approach FM authors to ask if we could translate their works - THEY approach us now. Not only at Thief-Forum.pl, but also at other sites, TTLG included.

 

Do we expect anybody to pay us a single penny for our work?

 

Heck, no! Not just because it would not be legal. It would not feel right. Looking Glass Studio put all their editors, every official level map included, for free. In order to let people expand the game's universe. It would feel wrong if anybody changed the policy. We don't even offer a possibility of donating to us, because we only want people to have more access to the content. Yet, even though taking our time to translate doesn't pay our bills, we are feeling rewarded enough - because people play our translations and come back for more, thankful and longing for the next adventure. It only feels fair - to the studio and to the fandom.

 

Lastly, nobody forces a modder into modding, a translator into translating pro bono, a writer into writing. We do that on our own account, because it shows our admiration of the original work. I believe it would be best if it stayed like that.

Edited April 25, 2015 by MagdalenaDwojniak

[Deleted11710008User]

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Edited December 15, 2019 by Guest

[Vagrant0]

A few facts...

 

Mods on the Nexus will always remain free.

 

Just because someone (singular) CAN charge for mods on Steam does not mean that everyone (plural) will want to use this system.

 

Due to the complications involved with selling modded content, the vast majority of modders, regardless how they actually feel about monetization , will not want to sell their modded content or force it through Steamworks.

[Cassie363]

Just because one person monetizes a mod doesn't mean we all will. But I have zero respect for those who do. I just don't think it's the right thing to do.

 

You should mod for the love of the game, the love of the community. Not to make a quick buck.

 

I will never charge for any mods I create, or have created. Ever. I have a tremendous love and respect for this community, and I believe everyone should be able to use what I make, free of charge.

 

This also extends to my art and music as well.

[KaiserDeathIV]

yes, ofc many mods will stay free. but i currently have 150 JUST for skyrim, and its possible that at least some of them turn paid. imagine JUST 10 turning paid, 10 essential mods. and they cost 2€ each. thats 20 euros. thats as much as i paid for the game.

 

many people are only upset about the systejm because valve gets 75% but nobody cares that there are people who cant afford buying mods...

[Vagrant0]

yes, ofc many mods will stay free. but i currently have 150 JUST for skyrim, and its possible that at least some of them turn paid. imagine JUST 10 turning paid, 10 essential mods. and they cost 2€ each. thats 20 euros. thats as much as i paid for the game.

 

many people are only upset about the systejm because valve gets 75% but nobody cares that there are people who cant afford buying mods...

Then you just don't use those mods.

 

I have mods on my PC that I have created, that I do not make available to others. The existence of these mods does not impact you in any way, so why should those mods be any different? It does not change what you already have installed, and even essential mods can be replaced once there is reason for someone to spend the effort to make a replacement. Rest assured, those who previously had their mods for free but which are now putting them behind a pricetag are not benefiting much from their decision currently. The number of people jumping over to make profit will certainly be relatively small and mostly limited to smaller or new mods simply because of the way that Steamworks installs mods.

[KaiserDeathIV]

 

yes, ofc many mods will stay free. but i currently have 150 JUST for skyrim, and its possible that at least some of them turn paid. imagine JUST 10 turning paid, 10 essential mods. and they cost 2€ each. thats 20 euros. thats as much as i paid for the game.

 

many people are only upset about the systejm because valve gets 75% but nobody cares that there are people who cant afford buying mods...

Then you just don't use those mods.

 

I have mods on my PC that I have created, that I do not make available to others. The existence of these mods does not impact you in any way, so why should those mods be any different? It does not change what you already have installed, and even essential mods can be replaced once there is reason for someone to spend the effort to make a replacement. Rest assured, those who previously had their mods for free but which are now putting them behind a pricetag are not benefiting much from their decision currently. The number of people jumping over to make profit will certainly be relatively small and mostly limited to smaller or new mods simply because of the way that Steamworks installs mods.

 

"dont use these mods then" brilliant. so i just stop using the mods that i use since more than 2 years. brilliant.

 

so paid mods are a good idea cuz you could just not buy/use them.... wow....

 

EDIT: this new system, be it good or bad, still makes modding only for the rich if you use many mods. so rich people can use more mods then poor people.

Edited April 26, 2015 by KaiserDeathIV

[Tidus44]

I wish someone would explain what the controversy is all about over paying for mods. I see any number of arguments against it, but none make any sense what so ever.

 

It'll make gaming for rich people? When was gaming ever for the poor? Poor people don't spend hard earned money on a computer, on an internet connection, on games to play or even have the spare time to even consider these things. Any person with all the money and spare time to purchase the equipment and accessories and play games and spend time on the internet isn't poor.

 

There are countless hobbies and hobbyists in the world and the vast majority of them make money selling the creations they make. There are web sites dedicated to hobbyists so they can sell their creations. I even see mods for Skyrim that are for sale on hobby sites. Is everyone who has a hobby limited to only do it for the benefit of the community?

That's insane thought.

I love the money I make from my hobby. And I certainly don't feel guilty for selling my creations. People get the satisfaction of owning a quality product and I get the satisfaction of making it and earning some cash. Why that should be offensive to anyone is mind boggling.

 

I applaud anyone who makes money from their hobby and wish them all the success in the world at it. I just as heartily applaud those hobbyists who give their creations away for free and wish them all the success it can bring as well.

As for the current system on Steam, that's between the modder and Steam and if the modder likes their 25%, all the best to them and I hope they all make a million dollars.

 

And honestly, I cannot figure out why it's an affront to humanity that one hobbyist is earning some well deserved reward in a business arrangement but on the other hand the Nexus web site which is essentially a hobby that makes money through various business arrangements and that's seen as OK. The only difference seems to be that so long as users get all the benefits of a hard working hobbyist for free and someone else is paying, that's great, but when users have to pay for something to a hard working hobbyist, then it's a disaster of biblical proportions.

And I do think that the owner of the Nexus is going to deeply regret the decision not to become involved in this right from the start.

 

As for ruining PC gaming or modding, that's the most obtuse idea I've heard in a long time.

Did PC gaming get ruined by having to buy games? I got all my games for free when I first got a computer. There were tons of games on bulletin boards that people made and they were all free. It didn't take long before someone started selling their games and that didn't ruin PC gaming. It got bigger and better.

Did PC gaming die when DLC came along? People liked DLC and were willing to pay for it and gaming got bigger and better again.

Now mods are going to cost and guess what? It's not going to ruin PC gaming either. If anything it's going to make PC gaming better because instead of just being a user, I'll be a consumer and that gives me a voice, just as it did when games started being sold and when DLC started being sold and that helped make PC games bigger and better.

 

The only controversy I have seen is privileged individuals whose sense of entitlement has been hurt because something they got for free might cost them money now. Can't afford to game, well gaming isn't a right, it's a spare time hobby and if you can't afford it then that is your personal problem, not the game companies, not the modders nor anyone else's; just yours.

 

Everyone deserves the recognition they feel is appropriate for the things they create, be it kudos or cash. I think its great that modders have the options.

[Vagrant0]

 

"dont use these mods then" brilliant. so i just stop using the mods that i use since more than 2 years. brilliant.

 

so paid mods are a good idea cuz you could just not buy/use them.... wow....

 

EDIT: this new system, be it good or bad, still makes modding only for the rich if you use many mods. so rich people can use more mods then poor people.

 

 

Even before this whole situation happened a modder could pull their mod for any reason, at any time. Nothing has changed here beyond the fact that the mod would still exist somewhere else, just with a pricetag. If you've been using these mods already for that long and are concerned, make a personal backup. NMM automatically keeps a backup archive of files it downloads and maintaining a local copy of mods you regularly use has always been suggested simply because it saves the trouble of hunting down and re-downloading mods any time you change your install. Stop getting so hung up over the cost aspect and hypothetical situations that havn't happened yet and probably won't happen. Even in the case of the few that have happened, there are alternatives and many of these are only temporarily removed.

 

That said, there is nothing stopping you from trying new mods, new installations. Sure it might be unfamiliar, it might not be "just how you want it" but it can lead to you finding something new that you like more.